Seismic bearing capacity factors for strip footings

Bearing capacity failures due to earthquake have detrimental effects. A great majority of available solutions in the literature is analytical. In this paper, the finite element method is used to estimate the seismic bearing capacity of strip footings for a wide range of friction angles and seismic coefficients.Curves relating seismic bearing capacity factors to earthquake acceleration are presented, and compared to available solutions in the literature. Furthermore, the effect of soil inertia on the seismic bearing capacity is investigated in the present paper. The results indicate that soil inertia plays a negligible role compared to the structural seismic load.

Keywords:

Seismic bearing capacity , Finite element method , Strip footings , Soil inertia